The Rays Confidence Graph is a look at how much confidence Rays fans have in the Tampa Bay Rays. The graph is designed to give us a look at how our emotional bias as Rays fans fluctuates through time. The “confidence” in the team is an inexact measure of how fans feel about the team’s current strength as well as how much confidence fans have in Joe Maddon and the franchise for the next 3-4 years…

There seems to be some concern that fans don’t appreciate Joe Maddon. While this graph is not the most scientific study ever, it suggests just the opposite. In fact, Rays fans have more confidence in Maddon than they do in the team.

Of the respondents, 90.1% gave Maddon a confidence rating of at least 7 (on a scale of 1-10). And only 5.0% gave him a value less than 5.

So either the talking heads are being swayed by the very vocal minority, or they think any criticism of Maddon is a vote of no-confidence. Personally, we have a ton of confidence in Maddon. But that doesn’t mean he is infallible or above occasional criticism.

Notes on the graph…

Confidence in the 2011 Rays went from 7.8 to 7.1. The most common response was “7” at 32.2%.

Confidence in the future went from 8.7 to 8.1. The most common response was “9” at 34.3%.

Confidence in Joe Maddon stayed 8.2. The most common response was “9” at 27.3%.